In a manufacturing process, it is required to attach a product specific fixture to a common machine plate for performing a manufacturing operation on a product secured in the fixture. For example, the manufacturing process could include joining two halves of a bottle by welding the two halves together. In this exemplary process, the upper half of the bottle is placed in an upper fixture and the lower half of the bottle is placed in a lower fixture for the welding procedure. To maintain the positioning of the fixtures and to hold the fixtures, the upper and lower fixtures are secured to upper and lower machine plates, respectively.
In order to secure the fixtures to the machine plates, securement members, such as toe clamps or bolts, can be used. The toe clamps clamp the fixtures to the machine plates and the bolts extend through the fixtures and into the machine plates where they can be threaded into the machine plates.
There are problems associated with using toe clamps or bolts in the manufacturing process to secure a fixture to a machine plate. Toe clamps are bulky and difficult to handle. A representative toe clamp is comprised of four independent pieces that must be organized and assembled by a technician. Additionally, in a representative manufacturing process, four toe clamp assemblies must be used per fixture to clamp the fixture to the machine plate.
There are also problems associated with using bolts to secure the fixtures to the machine plates. If bolts are used, certain types of fixtures may require a large quantity of such bolts in order to secure the fixture to the machine plate. Inefficiencies in the manufacturing process can result from requiring an operator to first locate a sufficient quantity of appropriately sized bolts and then having to install each of the bolts in the fixture for ultimate mating with the machine plate. This can be a time and labor intensive process, which in a manufacturing process, is classified as a non-value added activity.
Additionally, if a different fixture is required to be installed on the machine plate, all of the bolts must be removed from the first fixture and then reinstalled into the new fixture for securing the new fixture to the machine plate. Again, this time and labor intensive process adds inefficiencies to the overall manufacturing process.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide an improved apparatus and method for securing a fixture to a machine plate. The improved apparatus and method would reduce the number of process steps required for attaching a fixture to a machine plate. Consequently, the time required for the overall manufacturing process would also be reduced.